Over the years and with the many photos I've taken of wildlife and nature, sometimes there is a story. This is where I will feature art and the story that goes with it.
The Panda - living mainly in forests of southwest China, they subsist almost entirely on bamboo, consuming 26-84 pounds of it a day. The newborn is about the size of a stick of butter. But when fully grown, the females can weigh up to 200 lbs and the males around 300 lbs on a four-foot frame. Despite their bulky size, Pandas are great tree climbers.
One of our closest wild relatives, the Gorilla shares 98.3% of our DNA. The female gives birth only once every 4-6 years. With such a low birth rate, the species has a difficult time recovering from population decline. Poaching, diseases, and habitat destruction threaten the four gorilla subspecies: Mountain Gorilla, Western Lowland Gorilla, Eastern Lowland Gorilla, and Cross River Gorilla.
The Manatee - what a sad story and life they live. Forever living in a dangerous situation, boaters are responsible for so many of their deaths. Surface swimmers, they are considered Endangered and are on the brink of losing that status despite their declining numbers. Why? My guess is because not enough people care. People, the ones who make all the decisions about what animal should live or die. Again, why? Because Manatees are not a food source for humans so little is done to protect them. Because we can't see them and like a lot of what is in our oceans, what we can't see becomes irrelevant in our lives.
To continue my series to promote my EyeHelpAnimals.com website, my next animal to feature, in honor of summer and beach-goers, is the dolphin.
The Lion, that most majestic of animals, in general lives a quiet life and wants to be left alone by humans, as do the majority of wild animals. But we can't seem to do anything but abuse and exploit any and all wildlife that shares this planet with us.